January 25, 2005

Here is what I am planning for the patch in the next few patch releases:

Some new switches:

/noscan The scan button during combat will be disabled. This will limit scanning. You will still be able to see what weapons have been fired or are available as your opponent selects them.

/noreport The report button on the diplomacy screen will be disabled preventing you from seeing what technology your opponent has.

/bonus Each worker, scientist, and farmer receives a +3 bonus. It is not effected by moral, race picks, pollution, or any other effect. It also does not contribute to pollution. It is a flat bonus added after all regular calculations are done. This switch is intended to lessen the benefits of and reduce the negative effects of some race picks. Also, it should shorten multiplayer game length.

Add a new Galaxy Size:

Cluster The galaxy will contain the same number of stars and planets as a huge galaxy however they will be closer together. This should allow rapid expansion of you empire.

Add a new Technology Age:

Post-Warp All players will have technology 250RPs and below. All technology from those categories are received by all races even those who are non-creative.

7 comments:

(You know already that I am a fan of the noreport idea. and dbs noscan idea seems also interesting. btw i tried moo1 recently ---> there u need a battlescanner to scan in battle.)

Cluster looks also very nice. several mooniacs have asked me if there is some mod to increase the number of stars........but I guess thats not so easy.....

@ post-warp: db told me there was an advanced mod. Even non-creatives received all 650RP techs there. imho a nice mod you could implement as well...when u add sth like post-warp.-------------------

so far i am unsure about the effects of "bonus". i guess the results will be similar to the 1.32 mod where you have free autofacts and rlabs. i guess it will just eliminate tech races. Just early war/blitz or prodraces then. i guess such setup is not so popular because there are no 4ways in a medium galaxy now (where such blitz-prod combos rule...).

I'm looking forward to the /noscan and /noreport options. Nice new twist.

Cluster sounds intriguing...not sure how to predict what it does to racial balances. Post-warp would probably tilt things further in the direction of production races/away from tech, but it may make attack and blitz races more viable. (Spoken with appreciation as a former +50 Beam Attack devotee.)

Now that you have found some program memory to play with, is there any chance that the future might hold some simplistic map levelling options, such as identical home systems or identical immediate neighborhoods?

I appreciate all the work you put in on this. Your patches have helped breathe new life into MOO2 on Kali. The site itself is also appreciated...the XP play tips by themselves are also a gold mine, there's some new stuff there that is crucial that I haven't seen anywhere else.

Can the frequency and ferocity of Antaran attacks be increased? Someone claimed that their friend claimed to have written an editor ("Angry Ants") to achieve this, but it never publicly surfaced: certainly Google's never seen it. But it would be nice to have something like this.

Also, I suggest that the Post-Warp tech level not be fixed (at 250 or 650 RP or any other fixed number), but let the host choose it, as that flexibility will greatly increase its utility.

Very nice ideas! Battle would look crazy in noscan mode :P ... actually it would power up emg fleet or all close combat ships... hmmm crazy :)+3 prod would make game twice faster and more deadly. Super fast expansion always lead to big tech and empires and early combats! It would definitly make games shorter.I LOVE the cluster idea! Very nice :)

Are the noscan and noreport changes an attempt to speed up the game online? I like these options in single/hotseat mode. Especially if using spies. with Noreport, you wouldn't know who to spy on. If anything needs to changed, I would make it harder to steal a newer tech than an older tech. And make it harder to steal spying tech.(nothing worse than a Darlok stealing your cyber link 1 turn after you finish researching it.